Monday, May 17, 2010

This Arizona immigration law is eating the Obama administration's lunch. Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder admitted that he hadn't read the bill despite saying he might file a lawsuit against it. Though Holder did say he 'glanced' at it - one can do that while wearing a smoking jacket and holding a glass of brandy in one hand with a pipe in the other. Now DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano walks the same plank Holder did.

While being questioned about her opposition to Arizona's SB 1070, Napolitano admits to "knowing of it" but also says she hasn't "reviewed it in detail". Is that better than glancing at it? Your call.

What's amazing here is that after Napolitano says she hasn't read the law, she goes on to say it's not one that she would have signed as Governor. Like Holder, Napolitano is jumping to conclusions without reading the law. These are people in positions that are supposed to inherently preclude them from doing such things at every turn.

Now we have the second Obama appointee in less than a week utterly disgracing the position. The good news? Holder gets to take a breath, I guess.

Texas State Representative Leo Berman (R-Tyler), one of two lawmakers in this state - the other being Debbie Riddle of Tomball - who has announced that a law similar to Arizona's SB 1070 will be introduced at the next legislative session in January, is acting early to eliminate the specious claims of racism certain to emanate from the mouth of Al Sharpton. Berman announced today that there will be 'no profiling whatsoever' in the Texas version of the bill.

AUSTIN -- The state lawmaker leading the charge to bring an Arizona-style immigration law to Texas, says racial profiling will not be allowed if his bill becomes law.

“It will be the same bill except that we will completely eliminate any verbiage of profiling. There will be no profiling whatsoever,” said State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler. “If you don’t commit a crime, you're not going to be asked the question if you’re illegal or not -- just don’t commit the crime."

Berman explained his bill would allow local law enforcement agencies to ask about immigration status only if the people they stop or arrest can't show an official ID, such as a driver's license. Some immigrant advocates worry that still targets minorities unfairly -- especially Hispanic Texans.

Just wait. There will be cries of racism even if Berman concedes illegals are allowed to be in the state, unless they are caught committing another crime. Good move by Berman here. He just helped the leftwing wackos make themselves look even more foolish in objecting to this bill.

KVUE also mentions Gov. Rick Perry's reticence when it comes to supporting such a bill. What needs to happen is that Texans need to support the efforts of Berman and Riddle along the lines of 80%, thereby dragging Perry kicking and screaming to sign the bill.

The only critique I have for this video is that the background music is not that of a circus. Excellent montage focusing on Arizona law SB 1070 and Attorney General Eric Holder's subsequent comments, leading up to the crescendo of his admission to Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX) that he hasn't read the bill - though he did "glance at it".

Look for this one to get as much - if not more - play as Miss California's Carrie Prejean did when she sealed her fate by telling Perez Hilton that marriage should be between one man and one woman. This time, Oscar Nunez asked Miss Oklahoma's Morgan Elizabeth Woolard to chime in on Arizona's new illegal immigration law.

Funny thing. Like Prejean, Woolard did not give the answer the politically correct crowd was looking for. Another funny thing is that like Prejean, Woolard was runner-up.

Not only is the U.S. State Department - headed by Hillary Clinton - apologizing for one of the United States - Arizona - but it is doing so to China. Even at that, Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner apparently decided to bring up the matter of Arizona's new immigration law all by himself.

Posner said in addition to talks on freedom of religion and expression, labor rights and rule of law, officials also discussed Chinese complaints about problems with U.S. human rights, which have included crime, poverty, homelessness and racial discrimination.

He said U.S. officials did not whitewash the American record and in fact raised on its [sic] own a new immigration law in Arizona that requires police to ask about a person's immigration status if there is suspicion the person is in the country illegally.

Raised on its own?! First of all, the way that is worded is completely disingenuous. SB 1070 does NOT permit police to ask someone's immigration status if they suspect the individual to be illegal. If, in the course of stopping an individual for criminal behavior or other infraction, an officer determines said individual to be in the country illegally, that officer is to enforce the law.

But what's most disturbing about this is that an arm of the Obama administration is actually alienating one of its own states in international negotiations with a country who isn't exactly in love with America right now.

Paging Roberto Micheletti....

This move by Posner is almost reminiscent of how the Obama administration handled the situation in Honduras. That started when a communist stooge of Hugo Chavez - Manuel Zelaya - was constitutionally ousted on June 28th. Honduras was alienated by the U.N., the OAS, and the Obama administration, which all sided with Zelaya.

The interim president, Roberto Micheletti, withstood enormous international pressure and he was ultimately victorious when Zelaya was defeated in elections. What happened with Posner and the Chinese is potentially worse because it could serve to alienate Arizona internationally in a way not all that dissimilar from how Honduras was alienated.

Obama lost in Honduras. He needs to lose in Arizona too. That will require a very strong resolve on the part of Gov. Jan Brewer; she has done extraordinarly well in this regard so far. It would also be nice to see Texas Gov. Rick Perry be to Arizona what Israel and Taiwan were to Honduras - allies at a time when the latter desperately needed them.